


Easy

by dovingbird



Category: American Idol RPF
Genre: Angst, F/M, past relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-24
Updated: 2014-01-24
Packaged: 2018-01-09 22:03:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1151306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dovingbird/pseuds/dovingbird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If he can make being without her look so easy, then she can do that too. Inspired by Rascal Flatts and Natasha Bedingfield's song "Easy."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Easy

**Author's Note:**

> Part of a brief song prompting challenge I did.
> 
> "The truth is I miss  
> Lying in those arms of his  
> But I don't ever let it show.  
> I laugh and I act  
> Like I'm having the time of my life.  
> As far as he knows,
> 
> It's easy going out on Friday night,  
> Easy every time I see him out.  
> I can smile, live it up  
> The way a single girl does,  
> But what he - what he don't know  
> Is how hard it is  
> To make it look so easy"

"Is that who I think it is?"  
  
Elise quirked a brow. "What?"  
  
Erika nodded over Elise's shoulder, wrinkling her eyebrows. "I think it..." When Elise moved to look, Erika reached out and grabbed her arm. "No, it probably isn't..."  
  
"You're being ridiculous," Elise teased, though she felt an expectant tingle in the base of her stomach even as she shook her wrist free. See, things were different now. Before she even looked over her shoulder, she knew exactly who she was going to see at the bar.  
  
Two passionate months with Phil Phillips meant she was forever attuned to his presence, no matter where she was.  
  
She stared at the country boy, feeling the anticipatory bubbles stir in her chest that quickly burst and filled her with nausea. He leaned against the bar counter, eyes focused on the two guys across from him, guys that she recognized vaguely from his band. He wore a beige t-shirt, one she'd bought for him and took great pleasure in dressing him in after a particularly long shower together, and a pair of his favorite jeans. They fit him slickly, illuminating the sharpness of his torso, the strength of his thighs, and the confidence that he wore even when he was sleeping naked beside her.  
  
"Jesus, he's still beautiful," she whispered.  
  
Even as Erika grabbed her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, Elise was lost to the world. She was watching Phil having a good old night with his bros, drinking a beer, acting like things were okay, like his life hadn't changed radically along with hers three weeks ago.  
  
"Elise, we should just..."  
  
She didn't look away from him.  
  
"...Elise, let's just go."  
  
She watched him laugh at something one of the guys said, displaying his wide grin between the lips she knew so intimately. And then she watched him turn to the girl beside him, the girl she hadn't even noticed in the first place, and whisper something to her. The girl responded with a smirk and an offer of the shotglass she held in her hands. He took it from her, fingers brushing against her own, before throwing the whiskey back, his Adam's apple bouncing. It would definitely be whiskey. Elise herself had taught him the benefits of that particular beverage, especially when paired with body shots and slow, luxurious lovemaking on his kitchen table.  
  
"Elise?"  
  
She jumped. "What?" She looked up at Erika with wide eyes and parted lips.  
  
The expression on Erika's face was sweet. Hell, she looked like she was in more pain than Elise was right now, and probably all on her behalf in the first place. "Do you want to go?"  
  
"What? No, I'm totally cool. And you've been wanting to check this place out for ages."  
  
"It's okay." Erika shrugged. "Their drinks aren't as good as I thought they'd be."  
  
She looked across the room again. The bartender was pouring him another shot. Phil tossed it down his throat, and as he slammed the glass down on the bar, he turned his head and met her eyes.  
  
The heat in those eyes scraped her off the floor and pressed her into the ceiling, and she felt a touch of vertigo set in.  
  
Erika suddenly tugged her toward the dance floor, and Elise stumbled for only a moment before recovering. "Ugh, I can't stand seeing him," Erika muttered.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Seriously. Can you believe him? Over there, getting drunk, after what he did to you?"  
  
Elise dodged dancing couples here and there, hand involuntarily squeezing Erika's sharply. "He didn't do anything to-"  
  
"He kicked you out, Elise," Erika pressed.  
  
"Yeah, 'cuz we fought and I said a lot of stupid crap."  
  
"Because he kept coming home drunk!"  
  
Elise ripped her hand from Erika's grip again, glaring at her. "Where the hell are you taking me?"  
  
"Home," Erika said, frowning down from her superior height. "I'm not letting you-"  
  
"There's no reason to leave. Seriously. I'm over it. I'm over him." She risked a glance over her shoulder. A little gap between couples told her Phil was still watching her. He flinched when they locked gazes before turning back to the girl beside him and giving her a lazy smile. "And he's..." She choked on the sentence when he touched the girl's hair and smoothed it behind her ear. "...he's obviously over me too."  
  
"Elise..."  
  
"Let's dance."  
  
As she threw herself into the crunchy, rabid music, swaying her hips, shimmying her chest, throwing her arms, she kept her back to him. She kept her gaze on the wall and fought to keep her burning eyes clear. It didn't matter what he did. He could go make out with that girl. He could take her home and sleep with her in their damn bed, for all she cared. He wasn't hers anymore. She'd thrown all that away on a petty fight, on some stupid miscommunication, all because she felt a little lonely? Well, she was through with that. She couldn't change the past, and she sure as hell wasn't gonna go crawling back to him if she made him so damn unhappy anyway.  
  
Someone bumped into her, and though he apologized and moved on she threw her rage into glaring at the bystander. He strolled straight to the bar, and her eyes flitted to Phil of their own accord.  
  
In that moment, he looked at her with such bittersweetness, such pain, that it took her breath away, and she came to a clumsy stop.  
  
When he looked at her that way, she could almost believe that...that he...  
  
Erika put an arm around her shoulders, and Elise broke the stare. "Come on, honey. Let's go home. I've still got some pints of Ben & Jerry's in the freezer."  
  
She nodded, stomping down the wistfulness she'd seen. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right." She slipped her arm around Erika's waist and lifted her chin and strolled out to the downtown streets right beside her.  
  
If Phil could make it look so easy, so could she.


End file.
